Archive for November, 2006

Laptop is back

Tuesday, November 28th, 2006

Ok just picked up my laptop, lets hope that iSupport have managed to fix the problem. Bit annoyed that there are a few scratches on the supposed ‘brand new’ top panel that I had to have fitted, its obviously where they have put a screwdriver in to remove the old part but would have been nice if they could have been a bit more careful!!!

Gonna leave it running for a good few hours to make sure the problem doesn’t still exist, dont have that much faith in the guys who repaired the machine and to be honest dont think I would use them again. 3-5 days has turned into 2 weeks and I had to constantly call them to find out what was going on, including today… “is my laptop ready?”…. “oh yeah its just here, was just about to call you”… convienient and considering that was at 4 oclock I kinda doubt it.

Oh well I have the laptop back and it ‘appears’ to be working which is good!

Line Rider

Sunday, November 26th, 2006

If you’re after a good way to procrastinate at work check out:

Line Rider

Once you’ve wasted suitable ammounts of time, be happy that you never wasted this much time… even if it is very impressive!

Xbox Live

Saturday, November 25th, 2006

I’ve never been a big ‘play computer games online’ kinda guy and never really seen the point… this has however now all changed!?Ǭ? I got a 2day free pass to Xbox Live when I bought ‘Gears of War’ and Im sad to say that the marketing worked and I’ve signed up for a years access!?Ǭ? The whole system is INCREDIBLY well put together and once you get the hang of it, its very easy to get involved in games etc.?Ǭ? Its kinda like MSN for gaming, so means you can keep track of your mates who play and invite them into games etc… brilliant.?Ǭ? Means I can play xbox with people that I can’t really normally due to geographic obstacles!?Ǭ? There is ZERO lag/delay and its as if the person was in the next room rather than many miles away, it even has voice communication which is useful for in games and out (id say its more reliable than Skype, even if the quality isn’t quite as good).

Also good is that the fact that the Xbox will play music from my iPod and most impressively charges it!?Ǭ? Woohoo, this is a life saver whilst my laptop is still MIA!

If anyone reading this knows me and wants my play get in contact and ill give you my gamertag!

P.S. Perhaps a ‘Slay Jellybass’ event could be arranged if you find our music particuarly offensive, me and Chix would make Jelly out of you (b)ass ;)

Great weekend

Tuesday, November 21st, 2006

Just a quick update…

Had an awesome w/e, Friday we headed up to Hull for my parents suprise 25th wedding anniversary, great fun besides arriving a bit late due to the M1 being closed! Photos of the night are available here

Saturday headed back to the Hamptons, in much better time…

Sunday involved playing xbox with Chix, on possibly the best game I’ve ever played… “Gears of War” and going to see the new Bond film. The film was better than expected and had the most amazing intro to a film, some unbelivable free running!

So a great w/e but still laptop-less, working round Chix’s until its fixed/replaced… which I really need to decide on. ?Ǭ£250 to replace the top panel or get with the Intel shift and fork out alot more?!? Tricky because had the repair have been any more it would have been a no brainer, now its a tough call! Am I trying to talk myself into a new machine, or is it silly to pump money into old equipment?

Mr Scruff

Thursday, November 16th, 2006

Went to see Mr Scruff last night play at the uni, all in all a great night with alot of people! News flash of the evening is that Scruff dropped some Jellybass :D

He played Wobble and I think Chix has a video clip of the crowd at the time, which Ill try to upload onto the myspace when I get it!

Chix also saved the day and rescued the milk in Scruff’s shop from a smash and grab attack from a drunk student girl… here is a picture of us chilling our post Jellybass euphoria with a nice cup of Scruff Tea :D

Jellybass @ Mr Scruff

A good night was had by all, oh and the VJ and lady running the Scruff shop were also graced with a JB CD

P.S. If you myspace, please head over to Scruffs site and say how much you enjoy the Jellybass and how you would love to hear it some more ;)

Name – Need your help!

Monday, November 13th, 2006

Ok,

So after showing Hitch some of the tracks I’ve had sitting around for a while Im inspired to get them onto myspace to see what the rest of the world thinks and perhaps attempt to get them to follow in the way of the mighty JB!

Only thing stopping me is an alias for this particular project, which is kinda beaty/breaks melodic chilled hiphop(ish) stuff… in a similar vein to Bonobo/Aim/RJD2 etc…

I know from my site stats that people DO read my ramblings so please get involved and offer your name suggestions. I would like any reasonings for name suggestions if possible, anyone offering silly suggestions are gonna catch a beat down (chix im looking at you)!!!

Ta :D

Virtual BCF2000

Thursday, November 9th, 2006

Download Virtual BCF2000

Been working collaboratively on a project that Binnit aka Mr Steamshift dreamt up. Its basically a software emulator of the Behringer BCF2000 MIDI Controller which would let you test out stuff on the move.

There are a few caveats for usage so ill just copy in what Binnit wrote as there is no point repeating

There are a few things you need to know:-

  1. It requires MidiPipe or similar; this is because it doesn?¢¬Ä¬ôt act as a midi endpoint in and of itself – it requires an application to do that for it.
  2. Because of the origin of the application, it is designed to work in a very specific way; it is designed to mimic the way that the BCF2000 controller works once you have applied Steve Mokris?¢¬Ä¬ô Quartz Composer Sysex files. In short, this basically maps all of the buttons (barring the encoder group buttons) as midi controllers.

Usage

First launch MidiPipe and create a new pipe – with just a midi in element and a midi out element. Then launch the BCF2000 application; you can now select the MidiPipe midi input from the drop down list. For control of Garageband, for example, that?¢¬Ä¬ôs all you have to do.

Enjoy (and if you use it let us know how we can make it better). SteamSHIFT out.

Future versions *may* let you change the MIDI channel for each control and possibly (unlikely!) act as a standalone MIDI endpoint, thus removing the need for MidiPipe.

If you find it useful let us know :D

P.S. This uses the MIDI class I wrote for my AutoSampler application (Automatically creates EXS24 patches from hardware), that may now actually make it to completion!

Jellybass Fanclub

Monday, November 6th, 2006

So you want to be in the Jellybass fanclub? All you have to do is sport this lovely image on your website/blog/myspace etc. Current fanclub perks are our gratitude and love and the knowledge that you were integral in building the Jellybass empire, but we might be able to offer serious incentives if we ever make it big ;)

I cant get enough of the wobbly goodness!!!

To join add the following code to your website:

Now go forth and spread the word! :D

Two useful tools…

Friday, November 3rd, 2006

#1: Since setting up this blog and moving away from blogger I’ve noticed an influx of junk/spam comments made to posts I’d written. Every hour or so Id recieve and email telling me that a comment had been made that was awaiting my moderation due to it looking a little suspect… well that is all over now!!! Today I found Akismet which does all the spam detection for me… love it, back to good old simple blogging once again!

#2: I’ve been getting a fair bit of work from online contacts recently and the most sensible way to recieve payment has been paypal, especially now that you can recieve payment from people without paypal accounts themselves. But its a bit annoying when you request money that you dont get the ammount you expected due to the Paypal transaction fees. Well here is a great tool for working out how much to charge the customer in order to get the ammount you want after fees-reduction: Paypal Calculator

First Jellybass vinyl mastered…

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

Me and Chix headed over to Taunton (Sommerset) after work last night to get the first JB vinyl mastered and cut. Was quite a learning experience and after 5hours of tinkering the master was finally cut!

Just gotta do artwork and then its a matter of waitin for the pressing plant to do the run!

All very exciting stuff indeed!

Only downer is that Taunton is a crazy distance away so we’re both knackered today, after leaving there at midnight, and have to do the last set of the night tonight @ Rhino club!